On Wednesday, Crew informed districts that failed to set goals to improve their high school graduation rate and their third-grade reading and math scores by at least 1 percentage point that they must do so by Oct. 15.

"We do not want flat," he said. "They have to show some measure of growth."

He and his school board set targets that are exactly the same as what they accomplished in 2011: 89 percent of third-graders pass the state math test, 87 percent pass in reading, and 91 percent of high school students graduate in four years.

To ratchet up teaching levels, the district closed some elementary schools and moved sixth-graders from elementary to middle school to be taught by teachers trained exclusively to teach math or English. With all the turmoil and adjustments this year, Korach said, they thought consistent high results would be enough.

Now, he said, he and the board will carefully consider the growth trajectory students should be on and submit higher targets.

"We believe that we need to be fully supportive of the state's efforts. For us to set targets that are going to be in line with what the state is trying to accomplish, that's important to us," Korach said. "We thought we were on target. ... But it really matters that our kids can read well. It really matters that our kids can do the math. I don't have any issue at all with what we're focusing on here."

Crew pushed back, saying schools could make increases of 2 percentage points to 5 percentage points despite the cutbacks by making smarter, more focused use of the staff they still have to help more students succeed.

But he and his staff decided to insist that districts aim for better outcomes in just three of the 16 categories for which they were required to set goals. Next year, other results will also be potential triggers for a rewrite, including the percentage of ninth-graders who pass enough classes to be on track to graduate, Crew said.

This year, growth of 1 percentage point from 2011 to 2013 was considered enough -- not because Crew thinks 1 percent is adequate but because turning down more than one in three districts in the first year seemed too much, said Margie Lowe, his budget and data analyst.

"It was a concern about the signals we would send," Lowe said.

Crew, who stepped into his newly created position in June, picked metrics that were familiar to districts and easy for the state to monitor -- graduation rate and test scores.

Districts face no penalty for failing to reach their goals, nor reward for doing so.

Crew expressed confidence that districts will largely hit their targets, even without a tangible carrot or stick.

"What these do is they instigate the conversation, and that becomes a source of focused attention in a school and in a community, and that is a driver," he said. "Good or bad, it is attention, and that becomes a way that everybody knows there is something really, really significant about this work and that there is clarity about what movement looks like. The schools ultimately can keep score for themselves with their community.

"The danger," Crew said, "is that we do not want this to become a proxy for just moving numbers rather than moving kids. I am less interested in the outcome that is a function of just having brought greater fear to teaching and learning. I am much more inclined to support and be completely wowed by 'kids know more, they were taught more.' That's the name of this game."